Millions of Americans own guns for numerous reasons including both self-defense and home defense purposes. A general perception of gun owners is that the possession of a weapon may be able to deter, prevent or thwart crimes such as robberies, attacks, or home invasions. However, most people do not carry a weapon on them at all times, particularly when in the confines of their home, and even more so at night when many burglaries are likely to be perpetrated. Many companies, individuals, and family units choose to store handguns and other weapons in their businesses or homes for safety purposes in order to offer protection from the persons who would commit such crimes. In order to be effective, the handgun must be stored in an easily accessible location such that the gun can be quickly and easily obtained by an authorized user in a time of need.
While guns can provide safety against home invaders and other criminals, they also pose a risk to the inhabitants of the home, particularly children who may stumble upon a loaded weapon. A large number of handgun owners hide loaded weapons in drawers, on top shelves of book cases and closets, and other various locations in an attempt to prevent children or other unauthorized users from obtaining the weapon and potentially causing damage to themselves. However, the truth is that these hiding places sometimes fail to prevent unauthorized access to the weapons, too often resulting in tragedies. Nearly every day a child is injured or killed by self-inflicted gunshot wounds due to misplaced or unsecured firearms.
A large number of handgun owners turn to gun safes to prevent unauthorized access to a stored weapon. The prior art is full of safes adapted for housing handguns with numerous forms of locking mechanisms of varying levels of sophistication to prevent unauthorized access to the weapon. For example, the prior art includes safes that use key locks, combination locks, hidden compartments, and/or digital locking means with code access to prevent unauthorized access to the handguns contained therein.
Although the handgun safes of the prior art may be useful in preventing unauthorized access, they are not without issues of their own. For example, unauthorized users including children may learn the location of the keys and hidden compartments, negating the very function the safes are intended to serve. Additionally, the locking mechanisms are only functional when properly used—i.e., a safe left unlocked will not prevent access no matter how sophisticated the lock. Moreover, by their very nature, handgun safes are designed to hinder easy access. Even an authorized user must disengage the locking mechanism of the safe before the firearm can be accessed. Such action requires both time and attention when neither may be available, particularly when quick access is required for defensive purposes.
The key to effective gun storage for defense purposes is thus to provide easy, quick access for authorized users at any time the gun may be needed, while preventing unauthorized users such as children from accessing the weapon. Thus, it is an objective of the present invention to store a firearm in a manner such as to safeguard the weapon from unauthorized users while allowing quick and easy access to authorized users. It is another objective of some embodiments of the present invention to provide a safe means of storing a weapon or firearm which prevents unauthorized access to the weapon or firearm to children based on the physical limitations of the unauthorized user such as a child.